1 00:00:00,001 --> 00:00:14,700 Welcome to Podcast Answers, the show where I help you start and grow your podcast, answering 2 00:00:14,700 --> 00:00:20,500 any podcasting questions along the way. That's right. This episode is no different. We are 3 00:00:20,500 --> 00:00:28,120 going to be talking tonight a little bit about what happens when you are in a natural disaster 4 00:00:28,120 --> 00:00:36,800 area. So talking a little bit about things like we've seen tornadoes, we've seen hurricanes 5 00:00:36,800 --> 00:00:42,320 lately. And so I wanted to chat a little bit about that. And talking about what you should 6 00:00:42,320 --> 00:00:51,820 do if you are in the hurricane area, because you never know when your podcast may be interrupted 7 00:00:51,820 --> 00:00:58,800 and you don't want to lose your audience. So that being said, what are the very, very, 8 00:00:58,800 --> 00:01:03,960 very first thing that I'm going to have you do and I think you should do is you should 9 00:01:03,960 --> 00:01:10,220 try and update your audience, the cell phone may not work, you may not be able to get to 10 00:01:10,220 --> 00:01:14,600 your cell phone, your cell phone may not have service, you may not have battery at your 11 00:01:14,600 --> 00:01:21,100 house. So the very first thing that I think that you should be doing is somehow updating 12 00:01:21,100 --> 00:01:28,680 your audience. If that means just a quick update via social media, that means a quick 13 00:01:28,680 --> 00:01:35,540 update via social media. But it may also mean that you are able to send out an actual episode. 14 00:01:35,540 --> 00:01:40,840 So we'll talk a little bit about that on this episode today. But you may not have service 15 00:01:40,840 --> 00:01:45,700 at your house to get anything out to them. So one of the good things that you can do 16 00:01:45,700 --> 00:01:50,660 is listen to the radio or talking to others, you might be able to find some service somewhere. 17 00:01:50,660 --> 00:01:56,460 I know some people who were in the latest hurricane, and they were able to talk to people 18 00:01:56,460 --> 00:02:03,340 and they were saying that the radio, the actual radio waves were actually a really good help 19 00:02:03,340 --> 00:02:10,180 in the hurricane because they were able to, they were able to actually hear where people 20 00:02:10,180 --> 00:02:15,340 had different things that they had, they were able to say, Okay, this is where you can find 21 00:02:15,340 --> 00:02:20,360 cell services where you can find internet service. And so they were able to actually 22 00:02:20,360 --> 00:02:26,860 go about doing that. And so hopefully, you're able to do that talking to other people, you 23 00:02:26,860 --> 00:02:32,200 might be able to find a glimpse of where there might be an actual good internet service for 24 00:02:32,200 --> 00:02:38,200 you to be able to go out and update your your listeners. So hopefully, you have an email 25 00:02:38,200 --> 00:02:43,560 list that you can send emails out to. So if you don't have an email list, email lists 26 00:02:43,560 --> 00:02:52,140 are super important. They are ways that you can go ahead and, and have your your list, 27 00:02:52,140 --> 00:02:55,820 you know, your subscribers subscribe. And the great thing is, it doesn't have to be 28 00:02:55,820 --> 00:03:01,580 just trying to sell something you can say, Hey, remember, we're going live tomorrow. 29 00:03:01,580 --> 00:03:07,100 And we would love to have you join. And so that that is one way that you can that you 30 00:03:07,100 --> 00:03:12,460 can, or one good thing about an email list is you can see when people you can have people 31 00:03:12,460 --> 00:03:17,480 join you can do that. So you have a way to contact your people if all else fails. An 32 00:03:17,480 --> 00:03:21,460 email is quick, and it can get pretty, it's pretty small. And so it doesn't take a lot 33 00:03:21,460 --> 00:03:25,900 of internet. So hopefully, you have an email list. If not definitely start one today. But 34 00:03:25,900 --> 00:03:30,580 send it out an email, send out updates to social media, just some sort of a quick Hey, 35 00:03:30,580 --> 00:03:35,800 this is what's going on. I'm in the middle of a natural disaster. I have no internet 36 00:03:35,800 --> 00:03:39,940 right now. So updates are going to be late, you don't want to let your people hang. So 37 00:03:39,940 --> 00:03:44,940 that's really the key here is you don't want your, your listeners, you don't want them 38 00:03:44,940 --> 00:03:50,860 to be able to lose track of what you're doing. You don't want them to be just left hanging 39 00:03:50,860 --> 00:03:55,800 without an episode, especially if it could be two, three weeks. And if you're putting 40 00:03:55,800 --> 00:04:01,700 out an episode every week, then that could be something where you need to just put out 41 00:04:01,700 --> 00:04:07,100 your quick episode and say, Hey, I'm going to be out of commission for just a little 42 00:04:07,100 --> 00:04:13,860 bit because of this natural disaster that's going on. And so you can send out your emails, 43 00:04:13,860 --> 00:04:17,260 your social medias, let people know what's going on, tell them the details, you know, 44 00:04:17,260 --> 00:04:20,540 that you may not make some upcoming episodes because of this, you don't know when your 45 00:04:20,540 --> 00:04:25,380 power is going to come back on, things like that. It could be also good to have a friend 46 00:04:25,380 --> 00:04:31,480 in another location with access to your social media, slash email slash hosting provider. 47 00:04:31,480 --> 00:04:38,580 So by that, I mean, have a trusted person in in the area. So you know, obviously may 48 00:04:38,580 --> 00:04:43,140 not be you, or it wouldn't be you, but somebody else may be in a different state that you 49 00:04:43,140 --> 00:04:50,100 trust that you can say, Hey, john, I really need you to log into my social media, and 50 00:04:50,100 --> 00:04:54,100 let people know that it's going to be okay, that I'm just going to be out for a little 51 00:04:54,100 --> 00:04:59,300 bit because I am I'm having a natural disaster in my area. And so I really need you to go 52 00:04:59,300 --> 00:05:08,000 ahead and contact my, my social media group, my email group, or whatever. And maybe even 53 00:05:08,000 --> 00:05:13,340 a way to put out a small episode, you could even have a pre recorded episode saying, Hey, 54 00:05:13,340 --> 00:05:18,760 this is I'm not able to put my this episode out because of the fact that that I've got 55 00:05:18,760 --> 00:05:25,900 this, this natural disaster going on. And so you can have your trusted friend put those 56 00:05:25,900 --> 00:05:30,820 things out for you. That way, you can still get your episode out, your people can still 57 00:05:30,820 --> 00:05:36,780 listen to what they're going to be listening to. And they can still, they can still know 58 00:05:36,780 --> 00:05:40,860 that you're still alive and that you're not going to be going anywhere and that, you know, 59 00:05:40,860 --> 00:05:46,100 you're are coming back and things like that. So that's probably the easiest best thing 60 00:05:46,100 --> 00:05:54,620 is if you can have your trusted friend, again, in another location, another area that has 61 00:05:54,620 --> 00:05:59,060 the keys to the kingdom, if you will. And again, maybe they're not putting out the whole 62 00:05:59,060 --> 00:06:06,140 episode, maybe they're not, maybe they're not going to be doing everything for you, 63 00:06:06,140 --> 00:06:11,340 but they can at least update your social media saying, Hey, this show won't be out for you 64 00:06:11,340 --> 00:06:17,420 know, an who knows, because we've actually got a natural emergency going on and things 65 00:06:17,420 --> 00:06:23,860 like that. So another good thing to do is pre plan for your emergency episodes. So you 66 00:06:23,860 --> 00:06:29,300 can do that in a couple different ways. And the one thing is you can batch record episodes. 67 00:06:29,300 --> 00:06:34,900 So pre record several episodes to have a backlog that you can release in case an emergency 68 00:06:34,900 --> 00:06:40,220 arises, upload them to your podcast host platform with schedule, you probably wouldn't want 69 00:06:40,220 --> 00:06:45,200 to do scheduled release dates now, because you don't know when that's going to happen. 70 00:06:45,200 --> 00:06:50,880 But you can have it ready to go and uploaded to your media host and then just set as like 71 00:06:50,880 --> 00:06:56,420 a draft episode. And then in this case, you have an episode ready to go. And then you 72 00:06:56,420 --> 00:07:01,060 can ask your friend in the other state, no john, hey, go in, release these episodes for 73 00:07:01,060 --> 00:07:04,780 me because I'm not going to make it and I don't know when I'm going to make it so batch 74 00:07:04,780 --> 00:07:10,280 recording episodes. And again, this helps really, if you have evergreen content, meaning 75 00:07:10,280 --> 00:07:15,540 that your content is something that's going to be good no matter when you listen to it 76 00:07:15,540 --> 00:07:20,780 when you because some some episodes if you're doing like a news episode, that's going to 77 00:07:20,780 --> 00:07:24,780 get stale pretty quickly because it could could get stale pretty quickly because you 78 00:07:24,780 --> 00:07:30,380 don't know the news may be going may, you know, the news may be stale news by the time 79 00:07:30,380 --> 00:07:36,320 you go and actually get your episode place because you're batch recording all these episodes. 80 00:07:36,320 --> 00:07:40,620 But you can use evergreen content record content that isn't going to be time sensitive. So 81 00:07:40,620 --> 00:07:46,400 it can be used at any point. So this could some examples like this are q&a sessions, 82 00:07:46,400 --> 00:07:52,020 like best of highlights or other educational segments that don't have a timeframe on them. 83 00:07:52,020 --> 00:07:58,520 I like the q&a sessions because those are good. All the time, you can go back and listen 84 00:07:58,520 --> 00:08:03,520 to those because you're gonna say, Hey, you know, these are some questions that you the 85 00:08:03,520 --> 00:08:10,060 listeners have, and here we're going to answer them. So some other things that that are just 86 00:08:10,060 --> 00:08:19,180 good general kind of preparedness to have when you are going to be talking about things 87 00:08:19,180 --> 00:08:25,360 in an emergency. So having alternative power sources, so I like portable battery banks. 88 00:08:25,360 --> 00:08:30,740 And if you are not familiar with them, they're just a battery bank that you can plug in your 89 00:08:30,740 --> 00:08:35,200 phone into invest in a high capacity power bank for your phone and possibly even your 90 00:08:35,200 --> 00:08:41,200 small recording equipment. I know for me, the roadcaster Pro does allow me to power 91 00:08:41,200 --> 00:08:46,360 it by a battery bank, it has to be a specific battery bank, and it has to be a specific 92 00:08:46,360 --> 00:08:51,660 power delivery that it's going to be delivering, but I can actually power the roadcaster on 93 00:08:51,660 --> 00:08:56,920 on that. And so I would be able to actually record an episode. Now, I wouldn't be able 94 00:08:56,920 --> 00:09:01,220 to do all of the video and all of the other stuff that I'm doing right now. But I would 95 00:09:01,220 --> 00:09:06,340 be able to actually get by and do it do an episode, I would be able to actually record 96 00:09:06,340 --> 00:09:11,460 an episode and possibly even release it. So portable battery banks are key, I would have 97 00:09:11,460 --> 00:09:16,020 two or three of those around, have them charged up, use them now you're going to want to use 98 00:09:16,020 --> 00:09:22,340 them because if they just charged up, they will kind of go bad and you don't want to 99 00:09:22,340 --> 00:09:26,420 do that. So use your power banks, you might have to refresh them every year, get new ones 100 00:09:26,420 --> 00:09:32,880 every year. So you have these powder power, portable power banks that you can use and 101 00:09:32,880 --> 00:09:38,740 the charger small things like cell phones, because you can use minimal equipment. And 102 00:09:38,740 --> 00:09:43,020 we'll talk about that in a little bit. But you can use minimal equipment to record your 103 00:09:43,020 --> 00:09:48,020 episode and that would include things like your cell phone. And so you can do that with 104 00:09:48,020 --> 00:09:53,480 your portable battery banks now also invest in a solar charger. They're a great option 105 00:09:53,480 --> 00:09:57,700 for extended outages and you don't you never know how long you're going to be at without 106 00:09:57,700 --> 00:10:04,280 power. It may just be a couple hours, it may be a few days, it may be a few weeks. So solar, 107 00:10:04,280 --> 00:10:10,280 solar chargers. Now, I'm going to cost you a little bit I know that there are some portable 108 00:10:10,280 --> 00:10:15,560 power banks that actually have solar chargers in them. I would recommend staying away from 109 00:10:15,560 --> 00:10:22,600 those because the solar panels that are in those are not going to be high enough capacity 110 00:10:22,600 --> 00:10:26,900 that it would take you several days if not several weeks to actually charge them back 111 00:10:26,900 --> 00:10:34,660 up. You can get a larger solar panel and it can be still kind of portable. I have one 112 00:10:34,660 --> 00:10:38,480 that's like eight and a half by 11 like a sheet of paper but then that folds out into 113 00:10:38,480 --> 00:10:43,340 like four different five different panels. And it has a USB C on the back of it and I 114 00:10:43,340 --> 00:10:47,440 can actually just plug my chargers into that and charge my battery banks back up. So that's 115 00:10:47,440 --> 00:10:52,900 great in combination with the portable power banks because you it allows you to actually 116 00:10:52,900 --> 00:10:57,420 have that charge those back up once you've depleted them. And it can take a whole day 117 00:10:57,420 --> 00:11:03,780 to do that. But the whole day, you can have your battery bank plugged in, then at night 118 00:11:03,780 --> 00:11:08,400 plug your phone in, charge your phone back up. And you're not without power on your phone, 119 00:11:08,400 --> 00:11:14,620 which is great, not even just for your podcast, because it is good to have be able to use 120 00:11:14,620 --> 00:11:20,200 those small equipment to put out your podcast. But it's also good to in case you get stuck 121 00:11:20,200 --> 00:11:25,700 where you can actually still communicate. Now I know some of the newer newer iPhones 122 00:11:25,700 --> 00:11:32,640 can communicate via satellite. So that's that's also good. But it's those things that will 123 00:11:32,640 --> 00:11:37,500 help you stay in contact that will help you be able to do this. So the last thing is is 124 00:11:37,500 --> 00:11:42,360 getting a backup generator. So you can have a gas powered generator, whether that be your 125 00:11:42,360 --> 00:11:49,280 whole house generator or just a small, you know, gas one that can power things for a 126 00:11:49,280 --> 00:11:55,380 little while, that'll allow you to at least keep up your keep up your your things like 127 00:11:55,380 --> 00:11:59,760 your refrigerator and things like that. But it'll also allow you to charge those portable 128 00:11:59,760 --> 00:12:05,620 power banks. And then you can go ahead and get that your equipment back up and running. 129 00:12:05,620 --> 00:12:13,300 Now one of the things that is kind of important to note is if your cell phone is if there's 130 00:12:13,300 --> 00:12:18,380 no service in the area, the best thing you can do is actually go into airplane mode, 131 00:12:18,380 --> 00:12:24,560 because then you will actually save your battery longer because if you're if you're your cell 132 00:12:24,560 --> 00:12:29,980 tower is on if it's not in airplane mode, it's going to actually try and go out and 133 00:12:29,980 --> 00:12:34,180 search for a signal. And if it can't find one, it's going to keep doing that and that 134 00:12:34,180 --> 00:12:40,220 radio actually uses a lot of power. And so you actually if you're not connected to a 135 00:12:40,220 --> 00:12:45,440 cell tower, delete it, turn it off, go to airplane mode. So that way you don't end up 136 00:12:45,440 --> 00:12:49,620 using all of your power for that. And so with you go into airplane mode, your phone can 137 00:12:49,620 --> 00:12:54,740 actually last for a long time, especially you can do that. And then you'll check again 138 00:12:54,740 --> 00:13:00,540 in an hour or two hours to see if you have if you have service again, and then you can 139 00:13:00,540 --> 00:13:08,180 go off of airplane mode. And you'll be able to actually then use your phone. Now I did 140 00:13:08,180 --> 00:13:14,300 mention recording using minimal equipment. And so you can use your smartphone or your 141 00:13:14,300 --> 00:13:19,580 tablet to record directly to your phone if you can't access your regular setup. So for 142 00:13:19,580 --> 00:13:23,740 me, I have a roadcaster Pro that I'm using here with my mic and anyway, it allows me 143 00:13:23,740 --> 00:13:30,020 to do my music and things like that. But this, you don't have to do that, especially if you're 144 00:13:30,020 --> 00:13:34,780 putting out an emergency episode where you're just trying to get an update. So for instance, 145 00:13:34,780 --> 00:13:40,900 for the podcast that I was listening to earlier, where the one co host was without power, she 146 00:13:40,900 --> 00:13:47,060 was in North Carolina, and, and didn't have power or cell phone signal or whatever, all 147 00:13:47,060 --> 00:13:52,280 of that, she used her voice memo and was able to get up to the one location in town that 148 00:13:52,280 --> 00:13:58,100 had a little tiny bit of internet, and was able to upload that over to to their other 149 00:13:58,100 --> 00:14:02,440 co host that then they could bring that into the show. And so at least that their listeners 150 00:14:02,440 --> 00:14:06,420 got an update from her where she was at what she was doing and how she she was actually 151 00:14:06,420 --> 00:14:10,560 surviving and things like that. So you can use your smartphone or your tablet to record 152 00:14:10,560 --> 00:14:19,720 directly into that. And you can do that simply with using your your your built in mic on 153 00:14:19,720 --> 00:14:26,340 your on your computer or on your phone, as well as the voice memos app that works really 154 00:14:26,340 --> 00:14:31,340 well. And so you can you can just use the voice memo app, it can do short episodes or 155 00:14:31,340 --> 00:14:35,980 updates. You know, many modern smartphones have surprisingly good built in microphones. 156 00:14:35,980 --> 00:14:41,220 And so you can even get that or a compact USB mic that you can plug into and you know, 157 00:14:41,220 --> 00:14:46,460 still do slightly better quality than just your cell phone mic. Although again, modern 158 00:14:46,460 --> 00:14:50,940 cell phones have really good mics in them. So you can do a decent episode. Now again, 159 00:14:50,940 --> 00:14:59,280 I wouldn't do this for your whole production. I wouldn't continually do this. But if you 160 00:14:59,280 --> 00:15:04,020 are going to be doing this for an emergency episode, that will actually get by you can 161 00:15:04,020 --> 00:15:09,200 actually use the cell phone and it's not that big of a deal. You can also use things like 162 00:15:09,200 --> 00:15:14,980 zoom to like an app like zoom, you can record your audio in it, you can go right into a 163 00:15:14,980 --> 00:15:19,980 meeting, you can record your audio to it and have that from from zoom and it gets pretty 164 00:15:19,980 --> 00:15:23,700 decent quality. It's going to do a lot of the background noise removal and you're going 165 00:15:23,700 --> 00:15:29,460 to be okay there. So the other thing you can do is also use an app called like ferrite 166 00:15:29,460 --> 00:15:36,220 f e r r ite. And that app is something that I'm using on my iPad, I have it on my iPad 167 00:15:36,220 --> 00:15:43,060 and my phone actually. And you can not only record in it, but you can actually produce 168 00:15:43,060 --> 00:15:48,100 an episode you can edit your episode right down to it, you can you can export it as an 169 00:15:48,100 --> 00:15:52,260 mp3, you can tag it, you can put your cover art on it and everything and then you can 170 00:15:52,260 --> 00:15:55,960 actually if depending on how you're doing it, you can actually upload that to your podcast 171 00:15:55,960 --> 00:16:03,480 host if you have internet access. So ferrite is a great, great alternative if you can't 172 00:16:03,480 --> 00:16:08,780 get to your normal podcast equipment to do the recording. And then what if you haven't 173 00:16:08,780 --> 00:16:12,460 checked it, I did an episode a while back and I'll link to it in the show notes about 174 00:16:12,460 --> 00:16:17,780 like doing it on the road doing an episode on the road. And so that that in that case, 175 00:16:17,780 --> 00:16:23,020 I was actually I think I called the episode out in the field. And so in that episode, 176 00:16:23,020 --> 00:16:27,020 I was actually at the state or the county fair and I was recording an episode and editing 177 00:16:27,020 --> 00:16:31,820 it all on my phone and uploading it and I did that. There are some pitfalls and things 178 00:16:31,820 --> 00:16:34,820 to watch out for that. So there are two episodes that I did if you want to go back and check 179 00:16:34,820 --> 00:16:39,860 those out. Those will be in the show notes just a swipe or tap away. And you can you 180 00:16:39,860 --> 00:16:46,280 can go ahead and test those out. The other thing you can do is using like scheduling 181 00:16:46,280 --> 00:16:51,060 an automation tool. So if you are able to pre schedule, you're able to do that with 182 00:16:51,060 --> 00:16:55,580 like emails, you can pre schedule emails and social media posts, they can go live even 183 00:16:55,580 --> 00:17:02,000 if you don't have power. And the key to this is again, now you are going to be able to 184 00:17:02,000 --> 00:17:05,260 maybe not have a lot of time to do this, you are not going to be able to know that you're 185 00:17:05,260 --> 00:17:09,520 going to be without power probably because you don't know when a natural disaster is 186 00:17:09,520 --> 00:17:16,260 going to hit. But let's say you're able to quickly record a few episodes, a few thoughts 187 00:17:16,260 --> 00:17:20,380 down you can do that on your cell phone, you can do that on whatever equipment you have. 188 00:17:20,380 --> 00:17:25,780 And then let's say you do find a place that does have power, you can go back and schedule 189 00:17:25,780 --> 00:17:30,840 all of your emails, your social media posts, you even your your your feed to drop your 190 00:17:30,840 --> 00:17:37,660 episode. So you can do things pretty easily like that scheduling ahead of time. So let's 191 00:17:37,660 --> 00:17:41,620 say you get a bunch of them. Maybe you go to town and you upload three or four episodes 192 00:17:41,620 --> 00:17:45,440 at once. Because you don't know when you're going to come back online. And then let's 193 00:17:45,440 --> 00:17:49,240 say you do come back online, you have three weeks of content, but you come back after 194 00:17:49,240 --> 00:17:55,600 two weeks, you can go ahead and and delete those, they don't go out. But if you're not 195 00:17:55,600 --> 00:18:01,760 online, then you can actually have those go out automatically. Now I use for my scheduling 196 00:18:01,760 --> 00:18:06,880 of social media posts, I just use business dot facebook.com, which allows me to schedule 197 00:18:06,880 --> 00:18:11,940 my Instagram and my Facebook posts. And then twitter.com. If you go to twitter.com, if 198 00:18:11,940 --> 00:18:16,840 you're on Twitter, you can schedule the post right there on that. And so you're able to 199 00:18:16,840 --> 00:18:21,640 kind of pre do your media stuff and free pre do that. So at least you're still having that 200 00:18:21,640 --> 00:18:28,060 contact with your audience that you're, you can still post to your audience. Now, another 201 00:18:28,060 --> 00:18:31,920 thing you can do in an emergency is you can collaborate with other podcasters. So if you're 202 00:18:31,920 --> 00:18:35,920 unable to publish an episode, reach out to fellow podcasters who might be willing to 203 00:18:35,920 --> 00:18:40,680 share a quick update or even host an episode for you on your on your behalf. So you know, 204 00:18:40,680 --> 00:18:45,440 there's definitely you know, at least in most industries, there are other podcasters who 205 00:18:45,440 --> 00:18:50,800 are doing shows similar to yours. I've got other podcasters in my industry with a podcasting 206 00:18:50,800 --> 00:18:56,720 industry that that do shows about podcasting, I could reach out to those people, I could 207 00:18:56,720 --> 00:19:01,680 ask them if they'd be willing to do an episode for me, or or whatever. So they could record 208 00:19:01,680 --> 00:19:08,960 on my behalf. And then again, either send it to me, and I can get that out to one of, 209 00:19:08,960 --> 00:19:13,420 you know, maybe I can get up to the local place that actually still has internet. Or 210 00:19:13,420 --> 00:19:17,040 I can go, you know, contact my friend, the one I talked about in the beginning of this 211 00:19:17,040 --> 00:19:22,180 episode and say, Hey, here's this file, it's on this drive, will you post this for me because 212 00:19:22,180 --> 00:19:27,560 I'm not able to make it to, I'm not able to get out there and post this and you know, 213 00:19:27,560 --> 00:19:35,560 the person XYZ podcaster in my industry is did an episode for me, can you post this for 214 00:19:35,560 --> 00:19:41,880 me? So again, it's always helpful to have more than just you know, your podcast production 215 00:19:41,880 --> 00:19:51,040 flow. So that way you can actually do this. Also consider, you know, you can you can have, 216 00:19:51,040 --> 00:19:56,120 you can have even guest host, maybe where you can appear on other people's podcasts 217 00:19:56,120 --> 00:20:01,080 as an update for your audience. So again, maybe you have several different podcasts 218 00:20:01,080 --> 00:20:06,120 in your industry, you know, there's, you know, for this case, there's a, you know, in podcasting, 219 00:20:06,120 --> 00:20:11,440 there's pod news, there's podcasting 2.0, there's future of podcasting, there's a bunch 220 00:20:11,440 --> 00:20:16,760 of other shows out there that talk about podcasting. And I could reach out to one of them and say, 221 00:20:16,760 --> 00:20:22,080 Hey, here's a quick voice memo update, can you update my audience on your feed and say, 222 00:20:22,080 --> 00:20:26,960 I'm around this is what's going on. Like, here's how I'll be back shortly or whatever. 223 00:20:26,960 --> 00:20:31,360 So the other thing too, is let's the last thing I would say to one of the last things 224 00:20:31,360 --> 00:20:38,640 is, is go ahead and create an emergency plan for the future. So evaluate potential risks 225 00:20:38,640 --> 00:20:43,560 to your specific location. Is it hurricanes? Is it earthquakes, etc. You know, I know I 226 00:20:43,560 --> 00:20:52,040 live in the Midwest. And tornadoes come quite a bit here, or at least there's the potential. 227 00:20:52,040 --> 00:20:59,160 But depending on the season, and so for me, that means that maybe I need to prepare for 228 00:20:59,160 --> 00:21:03,400 when the power might be out because a bad storms coming through. Luckily, we haven't 229 00:21:03,400 --> 00:21:07,200 actually had that happen a lot in our area where the power has been out for an extended 230 00:21:07,200 --> 00:21:12,040 amount of time. But if it is, what would I do? What would I do for this episode? What 231 00:21:12,040 --> 00:21:18,800 would I do for this show? Well, good news for me, my, my work actually has a whole building 232 00:21:18,800 --> 00:21:25,880 generator that runs on natural gas. And so in the event of the actual power just being 233 00:21:25,880 --> 00:21:30,280 out, I could still probably produce my episodes there. If I had to take my gear there and 234 00:21:30,280 --> 00:21:35,240 do an episode I could. Now maybe the internet might not be there, but I could still produce 235 00:21:35,240 --> 00:21:43,380 my episode there if I needed to. Again, it that is if the if the building is still there, 236 00:21:43,380 --> 00:21:50,200 but I need to evaluate the potential risks. And again, in my area, storms and power outages 237 00:21:50,200 --> 00:21:58,180 due to tornadoes, maybe or is is a threat. Again, luckily, I haven't had that haven't 238 00:21:58,180 --> 00:22:02,640 had to deal with that in a while. But they are a threat. The other thing to do is store 239 00:22:02,640 --> 00:22:08,600 backup equipment. So like maybe a handheld recorder or spare batteries specifically for 240 00:22:08,600 --> 00:22:15,320 emergency use. So handheld recorders are great. You can get lots of different kinds of handheld 241 00:22:15,320 --> 00:22:21,240 recorders. Roland makes a handheld recorder. It's a adderall r2. It's an older device, 242 00:22:21,240 --> 00:22:27,080 but it works well for this. It also, you know, just it has a couple mics on it and it has 243 00:22:27,080 --> 00:22:33,720 an SD card that you can just record directly onto it. Your episodes are going to be raw. 244 00:22:33,720 --> 00:22:38,580 They're not going to have a whole lot of production content to them. But you can if you store 245 00:22:38,580 --> 00:22:43,960 that, put that in a case, keep the batteries separate, never put your batteries together 246 00:22:43,960 --> 00:22:47,920 in the devices because they will corrode. But store extra batteries, store extra things 247 00:22:47,920 --> 00:22:53,480 like that that you can have on hand. So that way you can you can things like a handheld 248 00:22:53,480 --> 00:23:00,080 recorder again, so that you can create your episode in case you need it. Also, backup 249 00:23:00,080 --> 00:23:05,520 your important audio files and project files on a cloud service like Google Drive or Dropbox 250 00:23:05,520 --> 00:23:10,720 for easy access from any devices. If you have to relocate temporarily, you know, for me, 251 00:23:10,720 --> 00:23:16,480 the good thing is, is I bare bones, I have my laptop, which has all my stuff on it that 252 00:23:16,480 --> 00:23:21,220 I can quickly grab and move and take out here with me. I could easily unplug my roadcast 253 00:23:21,220 --> 00:23:25,120 or if I needed to and take it with me. I wouldn't have everything like my teleprompter and my 254 00:23:25,120 --> 00:23:29,920 monitors in front of me my stream decks, but I could easily take it and relocate if I needed 255 00:23:29,920 --> 00:23:36,560 to. But sometimes I might need it's a good thing to have all of those audio files backed 256 00:23:36,560 --> 00:23:41,360 up. Now I mentioned that that software called ferrite. That's a great software. And the 257 00:23:41,360 --> 00:23:45,240 cool thing about it is you can actually put all of your audio files in it. So, you know, 258 00:23:45,240 --> 00:23:52,380 for instance, I have this as my beginning, you know, kind of music file for this podcast, 259 00:23:52,380 --> 00:23:57,480 I can put that in ferrite app. So it's easy for me to drop in. So even if I just record 260 00:23:57,480 --> 00:24:07,000 quickly on the iPad, or my phone, I have those, those those media files with me, so that I 261 00:24:07,000 --> 00:24:12,260 can kind of create a polished episode if I need to. Again, it's great. And then that 262 00:24:12,260 --> 00:24:16,400 also works well, if you have something like a Google Drive, where you can give access 263 00:24:16,400 --> 00:24:20,320 to that for somebody else. So let's say you do make an episode somehow, how are you going 264 00:24:20,320 --> 00:24:30,520 to get that to to Johnny over in Texas? Think about those things. Johnny not even not only 265 00:24:30,520 --> 00:24:36,560 needs to know how to get into your show and post it, maybe you need to create an account 266 00:24:36,560 --> 00:24:42,920 for him on your media server. But you also have to give him access to your Google Drive, 267 00:24:42,920 --> 00:24:49,280 or whatever, so that he has access to those digital assets that he can go ahead and make 268 00:24:49,280 --> 00:24:53,400 the episode for you or post the episode for you. But how are you going to get those files 269 00:24:53,400 --> 00:24:58,960 from place to place again, having all that stuff in Google Drive is is handy, because 270 00:24:58,960 --> 00:25:04,800 it allows you to then go and actually send those to people and and do what you need to 271 00:25:04,800 --> 00:25:11,380 do or have them with you if you need to go to a quickly quickly to a different computer. 272 00:25:11,380 --> 00:25:16,800 So also use the expertise as content or the experience, sorry, not the expertise, the 273 00:25:16,800 --> 00:25:21,700 experience as content. Once it's safe and feasible, consider turning your experience 274 00:25:21,700 --> 00:25:26,760 into an episode. document how you adapted what you learn how your listeners might prepare 275 00:25:26,760 --> 00:25:32,880 sharing real life resilient stories, and and deepen your audience connection. So that's 276 00:25:32,880 --> 00:25:36,720 really what I what I took. And actually, that's where I got the idea for this episode from. 277 00:25:36,720 --> 00:25:41,040 I mean, luckily, I've never had to do this. I've never had to adapt my podcast, I've never 278 00:25:41,040 --> 00:25:50,960 had to do an emergency service for my podcast. But LC Escobar from the feed did. And she 279 00:25:50,960 --> 00:25:57,320 the one thing I appreciated is so again, she used her voice memos app on her phone. She 280 00:25:57,320 --> 00:26:04,320 sent that to her co host Rob. He dropped it into the episode. And then the next episode 281 00:26:04,320 --> 00:26:09,720 where she was back and everything was okay. She went over it. She said this is what happened. 282 00:26:09,720 --> 00:26:18,400 And for her one of the things that she found to be helpful, or she found out in this case 283 00:26:18,400 --> 00:26:24,260 is that when everybody's out of the internet, how do you get that data to and from like, 284 00:26:24,260 --> 00:26:32,280 how do you not just like your podcast data, but information on what's going on information 285 00:26:32,280 --> 00:26:37,880 on how do you how do you how do you get that information? How do you figure out where you 286 00:26:37,880 --> 00:26:41,840 can maybe find the internet? How do you do that? In her case, she found out that the 287 00:26:41,840 --> 00:26:49,000 radio, the FM radio was the local radio station was a huge content for information. Because 288 00:26:49,000 --> 00:26:54,780 people were just calling in and saying, Hey, this is the this is the experience that I'm 289 00:26:54,780 --> 00:26:59,200 experiencing. This is this is the you know, this is what I need this down here at this 290 00:26:59,200 --> 00:27:04,760 corner of this place. I need this I have this if you need it. It was a great exchange for 291 00:27:04,760 --> 00:27:11,160 information. But she also said, you know what I'm going to do in in after this, I'm going 292 00:27:11,160 --> 00:27:16,480 to become a ham radio operator. Because in this case, ham radio would have been just 293 00:27:16,480 --> 00:27:28,600 as helpful because ham radio would have still worked. So she used her experience as content 294 00:27:28,600 --> 00:27:35,360 for the next show that she was on. And you can do that too. So again, to go over and 295 00:27:35,360 --> 00:27:39,480 kind of recap what I've been talking about in this episode, because again, natural disasters 296 00:27:39,480 --> 00:27:47,560 happen is, first and foremost, contact your listeners once you're okay. And say, Hey, 297 00:27:47,560 --> 00:27:52,300 guys, I'm going to be without power for I don't know how long you may not see an episode 298 00:27:52,300 --> 00:27:58,560 from me, but I am okay. That way, when they all of a sudden don't hear from you, if they're 299 00:27:58,560 --> 00:28:02,420 used to hearing from you every week or every other week or whatever, they're still able 300 00:28:02,420 --> 00:28:11,400 to get that information. They're still doesn't know what's going on. And also pre plan for 301 00:28:11,400 --> 00:28:16,380 emergency episodes have some emergency episodes on hand. Think about your alternative power 302 00:28:16,380 --> 00:28:21,880 sources. How are you going to power some equipment? And again, I know probably your first and 303 00:28:21,880 --> 00:28:30,720 foremost thought is not going to be podcast equipment, but probably your refrigerator 304 00:28:30,720 --> 00:28:34,500 and things like that. But how are you going to be able to get that information out? How 305 00:28:34,500 --> 00:28:38,880 are you going to be able to power your cell phone? Because even if you don't have service, 306 00:28:38,880 --> 00:28:43,820 your cell phone is super handy. And you're probably going to find yourself taking notes 307 00:28:43,820 --> 00:28:49,940 and recording things because that's where Yeah, you're that's about all you have to 308 00:28:49,940 --> 00:28:56,020 do. Have your alternative power sources, whether that be a power bank, a solar charger, a backup 309 00:28:56,020 --> 00:29:01,640 generator. And then also, you know, using minimal equipment to get your podcast episodes 310 00:29:01,640 --> 00:29:05,980 out. Again, it may just be the notes app on your on your phone to get some information 311 00:29:05,980 --> 00:29:10,740 out to whoever it needs to get out. Maybe you even have something like a Discord server 312 00:29:10,740 --> 00:29:16,220 that you can update and things like that. Remember, you use scheduling and automation, 313 00:29:16,220 --> 00:29:20,700 have have have all that set up and ready to go if you can batch record your episodes if 314 00:29:20,700 --> 00:29:26,540 you're going to be down for a while and then again, create your plan for the future, have 315 00:29:26,540 --> 00:29:30,660 it ready to go have some things ready to go in case of emergency. And then also use the 316 00:29:30,660 --> 00:29:37,320 experience as content. That way your listeners, you can let your listeners know on an update, 317 00:29:37,320 --> 00:29:42,300 it may not have anything to do again, your your podcast may not have anything to do about 318 00:29:42,300 --> 00:29:49,300 podcasting and that but your content, you can still use that content in real life. So 319 00:29:49,300 --> 00:29:56,780 guys, what are your thoughts? Have you had to go through a through a natural disaster? 320 00:29:56,780 --> 00:30:00,920 Have you had to go through a natural disaster? Contact me I'd love to hear it. You can go 321 00:30:00,920 --> 00:30:07,040 to podcastanswers.com slash contact and leave me a message and and let me know what you've 322 00:30:07,040 --> 00:30:11,060 had to do in a natural disaster. What how do you have you got your podcast? Have you 323 00:30:11,060 --> 00:30:18,860 used How have you survived this show? And and then also, if you want help starting your 324 00:30:18,860 --> 00:30:24,780 podcast, that's a great place or even producing your podcast, I help people produce podcasts, 325 00:30:24,780 --> 00:30:28,200 I can be that trusted friend in the other state. If you want me to produce your podcast 326 00:30:28,200 --> 00:30:33,420 for you when you're out, I can be your emergency contact, I can be your emergency emergency 327 00:30:33,420 --> 00:30:37,780 person that produces your show for you while you're out. You give me the content again 328 00:30:37,780 --> 00:30:43,460 that you can contact me at podcastanswers.com slash contact. I would love to hear that I 329 00:30:43,460 --> 00:30:49,620 would love to be that for you. So contact me and we can we can definitely do that. Thanks 330 00:30:49,620 --> 00:30:55,300 again, guys. If you have any questions that you would love covered on this show, again, 331 00:30:55,300 --> 00:31:01,980 I'm gonna say it one more time. podcastanswers.com slash contact will get you to that place where 332 00:31:01,980 --> 00:31:07,540 you can you can contact me and let me know what you want me to cover on this show, guys 333 00:31:07,540 --> 00:31:14,980 until next time, keep podcasting and stay safe. 334 00:31:17,560 --> 00:31:19,620 you